Question About Copyright

[sariola]

Hello there, this is my first post.

I have inherited from my great-grandfather a collection of the first edition of the Great Books of the Western World. I have seen that this website hosts many of the titles in that collection, however The Great Conversation and the two books of the Syntopicon are not on this site. I would like to be able to record them for this project, but first I need to know if their copyright has expired. According to archive.org, the year that The Great Conversation was copyrighted was 1952, and I couldn't find it listed in the Library of Congress Copyright Records. Is there a surefire way to figure out if a book is copyrighted or not? Thank you very much.

[TriciaG]

Surefire way is to get copyright clearance through Project Gutenberg. It takes research on your part, and it should be done to their benefit (they provide the service in order for people to submit texts to put on Project Gutenberg).

Here is their wiki on how it's done: http://www.gutenberg.org/wiki/Gutenberg:Copyright_How-To (Look for Rule 6).

[TriciaG]

Wait. I found the copyright renewal.

Great books of the Western World. Vol. 1-54.

Author:
Robert M. Hutchins.
Date:
1980
Renewal ID:
RE045404
Original Registration Number:
A66673
Date of Renewal:
9Jan80
Date of Publication:
5Apr52
Claimant:
Encyclopaedia Britannica, Inc. (PWH)
Class Code:
PWH

So I'm afraid they're not recordable here.